The Chinese smartphone market has many mobile manufacturers who make value for money products and Mlais is one of them. Thanks to Gearbest.com, we have the Mlais M7 phablet with us. In association with Android Kingdom, we bring you the Mlais M7 hands on and detailed first impressions (Video).

Lets quickly go through the specifications of the M7, which is currently priced at only US $186.59. The Mlais M7 features a 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It is powered by a 1.7 GHz octa-core 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 processor with Mali-T760 GPU. It has 3 GB of RAM, 16 GB internal storage which is expandable up to 64 GB via microSD. It runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. It boasts of a fingerprint scanner touch ID at the back below the rear camera.

The M7 comes with a 13 megapixel rear camera with chrome LED flash, Sony IMX135 sensor and 6P lenses. On the front, it has a 5 megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calling. The phablet is 8.6 mm thick and weighs 160 grams. It supports Dual SIM (micro + normal) with dual standby mode.

Mlais M7 hands on and first impressions (Video)

Hardware, Build Quality & Display

Starting with the design and build quality, it has a metal frame running around the body which makes it good-looking as well as sturdy and solid. In spite of having a 5.5-inch display, it is quite compact and does not feel too big. It is good for one hand usage.

Now, coming to the hardware, we have the 3.5 mm audio jack and microUSB port at the top. It is followed by the display at the middle and on top of that, we find the 5 megapixel front-facing camera with couple of sensors and the hearing grill. Below the display, we have three capacitive buttons and they are backlit. However, only the Home button is visible when the screen is not on. At the bottom, we just have the primary mic followed by both the volume rocker and power button on the left. There is nothing on the right. Coming to the back side, we find the 13 megapixel rear camera along with LED flash on the right of it. The fingerprint scanner TouchID is placed below the camera and it surprisingly works accurately and is very fast.

The M7 features a 5.5-inch HD IPS display which has a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 as well. The display is quite bright, vivid and has good viewing angles. Under bright sunlight also it does not have any problem. Even on minimum brightness, we did not face any difficulty in using it indoors or outdoors either.

Performance, Software & Camera

It is powered by a 1.7 GHz octa-core 64-bit MediaTek MT6752 processor with Mali-T760 GPU. The processor is snappy and there was no lag or frame drops while multitasking with few apps, playing games, watching Full HD videos and surfing the web. The 3 GB of RAM on board helps as well. It comes with 16 GB internal storage out of which only is available. You can expand it up to 64 GB via microSD card. The M7 also supports USB OTG. The fingerprint scanner works really well and is very snappy. It is almost as good as Apple’s TouchID.

Now coming to the software, it runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with no bloatware or skin on top of it. You get to enjoy stock Android but with some additional gestures (double tap to wake/sleep). It has a black app drawer which looks elegant. We can lock/unlock specific apps with our fingerprint and protect our messages as well which is cool.

Coming to the camera, it is not the best thing on this phablet. The 13 megapixel rear shooter fails to focus at times. But when it does get it right, it really performs well, considering the price point. So, it is a hit and a miss so far. It has object tracking feature which is missing even in flagships. Not the forget, the camera app has live filters as well. However, we will test the camera in-depth and give our verdict in our full review.

Connectivity and Battery Life

The Mlais M7 has Dual SIM support with dual standby mode and one tray takes in micro SIM and a normal SIM on the second tray. It has 4G LTE support with the following bands (800/1,800/ 2,100/ 2,600 MHz). The usual WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS are on board too.

The M7 packs in a 2,600 mAh battery under the hood and has fared quite well in our one day testing so far. We will get back to it in our full review.

Conclusion

The Mlais M7 just costs US $186.59 (INR Rs 11,850 approximately) and is an absolute beast for the price. With our Mlais M7 hands on and detailed first impressions, it looks a great VFM but we will bring the full review soon after testing it further.

About the author

Bibek Saha

He is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of The Techolic. A tech enthusiast who is always found reading or writing on technology. An avid Manchester United fan and a big time foodie. If not writing, he can be found watching the latest movies and TV shows. Interact with him on Twitter and Google+